


Stages of Grief - Kagepro Style

by FahcLove



Category: Mekakucity Actors
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Blood, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Fighting, Swearing, death stuff, stages of grief, tho everyone dies in canon soooo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 02:25:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17034728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FahcLove/pseuds/FahcLove
Summary: "I don't...I don't believe you!""How dare you say that!""I'll do anything, don't kill me!""What's the point of living anymore?""I finally know what to do."The Kagepro kids going through the five stages of grief in five different timelines.





	1. Denial

No. No. No no no no no.  
_This can’t be happening,_ Momo thought to herself, _no way this is real!_

  
She took a shaky step backwards, her left foot landing in something sticky. She didn’t look down. It was probably paint. Hell, even pee would be better than stepping in-  
Momo shook her head to get rid of the thought. No!

  
“No way did I just step in what I just stepped in, I’m fine!” she said to the cold night air.

  
Her phone buzzed. A perfect distraction. She grabbed her phone from her pocket and answered it.

“Hello, Kisaragi Momo here! If you are an idol-“

  
“Old Hag! Did you find her?” Hibiya’s frantic voice cut her off, “Kido and I have looked all down Main, no sign of her. Please tell me you or Kano found something. Please?”

  
Momo’s stomach dropped, “Actually, I’m not with Kano, he went to go help Marry find Seto, and - I’m sorry Hibiya, I haven’t seen her. Maybe she went a little farther than Main? Like the beach or something?” Momo couldn’t stop her voice from shaking but she hoped he didn’t notice.

  
“Y-You might be on to something, you old hag. Call back if you find anything,” there was a pause, “Kido says to stay safe.”

  
The line clicked and the call ended. The warm feeling she had a second ago was gone.

  
“M-Maybe I’m just overreacting. M-Maybe I didn’t just find a body in the alley that suspiciously looks like Hiyori, maybe I’m just seeing things. I haven’t been getting that much sleep so - Yes! That’s it! I’m just hallucinating!”

  
Momo turned back around to the bed of the alley, where her brain had created the image of Hiyori’s dead body, slumped against the wall, coated in her own blood, holding the knife used to kill her. When Momo had first found her, it was a gruesome scene. But now she knows it’s fake, it doesn’t look to bad at all.

  
“It’s okay Hiyori, I know this isn’t real and you’re fine, and I promise that we’ll find you. Hibiya’s been worried sick, y’know.” Hiyori’s fake dead body didn’t answer.

“I mean,” Momo continued, “Of course he would be worried sick, you were - are! You _are_ his best friend. He cares about you a lot. I hope we can find you soon. The _real_ you, not this hallucination made by my brain since it’s -” Momo looked at her watch and groaned, “three thirty three am on a school night, although I barely even go to school anymore since I joined the Meka-Meka Dan. Oh, Hiyori, you’ll probably join that too! Hibiya is already a member as well as that tall person that was following you two around, so you’ll probably be -” some quick math, “the tenth member? I think? Cause there’s Kido, Seto, Kano, Marry, Me, Ene, Shin, Hibiya, and the tall person. Yeah, you’d be no. 10! Isn’t that exciting?” the hallucination didn’t answer, Momo kept on talking, “Just to think that only a few days ago there were only four members. Now there’s ten! And I have nine new friends! Well, eight if you exclude my brother, but I already knew Ene, so I have seven new friends. It’s more than I’ve ever had in my entire life. My dad always told me that this day would come.

“I remember when I was like 5 or so, on my first day of school, no one would talk to me. I came home crying and crying, my dad said I almost flooded the house! But he sat me down and told me that even though I didn’t have friends then, someday I would because I was very special and very kind. And he was right. Well, I don’t really know how special or kind I am, but I do have a lot of friends. I’m very excited for you to join us Hiyori! But, I should probably keep looking for the real you, if you don’t mind,” Momo looked at the hallucination and shivered. She shouldn’t’ve watched that horror movie marathon with Marry, Kano, Seto and Kido last night. Hiyori actually looked _real_. Thankfully she wasn’t, and the real Hiyori was just hiding somewhere waiting to be found.

“I’m gonna find you Hiyori! Don’t you worry!” she yelled into the cold night air, her only response being the soft call of cicadas in the night.

“How cute,” a voice laughed behind her, “you’re actually in complete and utter denial. Humans are so strange.”

Momo turned around to see...someone familiar. As she looked at the person in front of her, she felt a sense of familiarity in their black hair, dark clothes, strange yellow markings on their face and bloodstained hands. Momo’s blood turned to ice. The person was completely covered in blood, eerily mirroring her hallucination of Hiyori.

She took a step backward into the alley, trying to look for an escape. The person laughed and walked down the alley, talking up a storm.

“You see a perfectly good dead body, and instead of trying to do something or even calling someone, you believe it’s a figment of your imagination! Is it so much easier to believe you’re insane rather than believing in the all natural, 100% real act of dying. How strange.”

Momo took a few more steps backward. The person kept walking forward.

“This is almost a dance of shorts,” the person said, taking one step forward. Momo took two steps back, “I don’t know much about dances, and this host knows even less, but if all dances are like this, they seem pretty fun. Oh, watch your step.”

When they said this, Momo stepped on something and tripped, falling into something soft and cold, like the time she left stale mochi sitting in her room for three days. The person buckled over in laughter and Momo turned to look at what she fell onto.

...

It was Hiyori. Momo’s pink jacket - her favorite pink jacket - was coated in the blood of Hibiya’s dead friend. Oh my god. Hiyori’s actually dead. She’s actually 100% for-real dead. Momo’s heart stopped. She wanted to cry.

Looking at the dead, bloody, stabbed body of Hiyori, Momo remembered when she went swimming with her dad. He had drowned. She can still remember his face as he clung onto her, sinking deeper and deeper into the water. She remembers when the paramedics pulled his body out of the water, bloated and wrinkled. This looked nothing like Hiyori’s body, but the empty look in her father’s eyes is the same in Hiyori’s. Nothing, glassy, almost completely clear.

As she was thinking about this, she realized dimly that she was screaming, and the person in black was laughing, making a horrifying sound that echoed through the night sky.

“Oh the look on your face! That’s too good! You can’t deny death now, can you? Not when it’s staring you in the face! Or, when you’re staring _it_ in the face. This is too good!” the person said in mirth, wiping tears away from their eyes and taking a few more steps closer. They could reach out and touch Momo now, but the girl didn’t even notice. She couldn’t stop staring at Hiyori’s glassy eyes and bloody dress.

The person laughed and reached out, grasping Momo’s head in their hand. They lifted her up by the skull, the rest of her body limp. She didn’t even bother fighting back. They laughed.

“I would drag this out more, but I have a Queen to find and I think you’re full of enough despair for this timeline. Goodnight Kisaragi Momo, goodnight.”

Before Momo could even think to ask any of the questions that passed through her brain with that sentence, she was thrown against the wall of the alley, her brain cracking and exploding against the brick. Her lifeless body and dull, glassy eyes slumped to the floor, her limp body cradling Hiyori’s.

The dark person ran their bloody hands through their hair and laughed.

_Five down, four to go._


	2. Anger

The four of them were trapped. If they weren’t about to die, Kano would’ve said something along the lines of “Trapped like the rats we are,” and Kido would’ve hit him, Marry would’ve smiled and Seto would’ve laughed.

But they were about to die. 

“Fuck! What’re we supposed to do?” Kido kicked one of the concrete walls, then immediately winced, rubbing her foot, “We can’t just stay here while that maniac kills everyone!”

“What else is there to do?” Kano said, leaning against the wall that Kido kicked, “We’re stuck and we have no clue what that freak is capable of. They managed to possess Konoha for fuck’s sake. We’re completely in the dark.”

“We-We can’t give up,” Marry said quietly from inside Seto’s jacket. She let go of Seto and shakily stood up, “I like the life I’m living right now. I like - I like my friends. We can’t let that snake take away everything we’ve worked for, all the people we’ve met,” she shook while she was saying that, leaning into Seto for reassurance. 

“What can we do then, Marry? They have all of Konoha’s strength plus some. We can’t stand up to that. You can’t even fight! Look at how much you’re shaking. You can’t even stand up by yourself,” Kano said back, his voice rising up an octave. Marry turned red. 

“I can too!” she pushed Seto away from her and took four shaky steps to Kano and slapped him, “Don’t you dare just give up because they’re stronger than us! We’re strong and smart too! We just have to believe in ourselves and our friends.”

“Look at where that got us.”

Marry opened her mouth to retort when Seto stepped between them, his face a very forced smile. 

“We shouldn’t attack each other. Right now we need to find out a way to get out of here. We can decide whether or not we want to attack Dark Konoha when we get out of here.”

Kano took a deep breath. His eyes flashed red and he smiled, “Okay, how do we get out of here?”

“Well, it looks like we are trapped in some cell of some sort that only reveals the door when a code is pushed in on the other side. So, we could try to find where the door is and try to get it to open from the inside. Seto, could you try to check if there’s anyone near us, maybe someone who knows the code?” Kido walked over to the others and they formed a small circle, much like what they used to do in the Mekakushi Dan before the increase in members. 

Seto nodded, “I’ll try,” his eyes turned red and he closed them, trying to listen to the thoughts of the others around him, reaching out farther and farther into the facility. 

Suddenly his eyes shot open, a bloodshot red, and he fell to the floor, grabbing onto Marry for dear life. He was breathing in short bursts and tears were falling down his face in a continuous stream. Kano and Kido kneeled on the floor next to him, putting their hands on his knee and back, respectively. Marry was holding his hands, his nails digging into her skin but she didn’t complain. 

The four of them sat like that for a long time as Seto tried to rid his brain of the horrible thoughts from others. When his eyes flicked from red and finally stayed on a familiar hazel, the other three sighed in relief. 

“Kousuke, what’s wrong? What did you hear?” Kido asked, rubbing his back in little circles. 

Seto took a deep breath, but the words that came out were fragmented, “Momo - alive - dead - all gone - the snake - the Queen,” he took another breath, “Everyone’s - Everyone is dead. The snake is looking for their Queen to “reset”. Everyone’s dead. It’s just us.”

Marry panicked, “No. No! That’s not right. Kousuke, the snake is just messing with your head. You’re wrong!” she jumped up and backed away from him, “You-You’re wrong! No one’s dead, there’s no Queen, we’re fine!” she said, stomping on the ground with her bare feet, her shoes lost while running. 

“Marry, has your hair gotten shorter-”

“Shuuya, is this really the time to be making jokes?” Kido said, her voice biting. She stood up and went to comfort Marry. 

“Really? Is that how you want to be Tsubomi? I’m not joking, I haven’t been joking ever since we came down to this shitty lab, ever since we got stuck in this godforsaken shithole of a prison and I’m not joking now! Or maybe everything I say is just a joke to you> You’ve never taken me seriously, even as kids. Ayano was the only one who really understood me, she was the only one who cared to try!” Kano shouted at Kido, standing up and walking over to her, jabbing his finger in her chest, her heart. 

“That’s too bad, because the only person “who really knew you” is fucking dead! She’s fucking dead! Stop bringing her up as if she’s some sort of shitty trump card that you think will win any argument. Stop shitting on her name, will you? For the only person who understood you, you really don’t understand her. You think she would want this for you? The lying, the manipulation, the jokes that border on insensitive? Ayano would hate that, you know it. Actually, she’s probably looking down on us from wherever-the-fuck and is really disappointed in you. She probably hates you,” Kido lets go of Marry to push Kano to the ground, who in turn swipe at her legs so the both of them are on the ground, yelling and punching each other. 

Seto pulls himself up and tries to get between them, “Guys, this isn’t solving anything. We need to calm down and figure out-”

Neither of them knew which one hit him, but on moment Seto was between the two of them and the next he was laying limp on the ground, thrown back and bleeding. 

“Kousuke? Kousuke!” Marry cried and ran over to him, sprawling on the ground, putting her head to his chest, “I-I cant-I can’t feel his heart! He’s not breathing! Tsubomi, Shuuya, he’s not breathing!” she was sobbing, not noticing the blood from his cracked skull all over her hands, “Help me start his heart!” neither Kano nor Kido moved, Marry whipped her head around, her hair up to the middle of her back, her pink eyes swollen and angry, “I said. Help. Me.”

The two of them didn’t even bother to stand up, they both just crawled over to Seto’s body, already growing cold. The three of them pushed down on his chest, trying to restart an already stopped heart, but to no avail. He was dead.

Marry buried her face in Seto’s chest, trying to listen for the familiar sound of his heart, only getting the echoed sounds of her own tears. Kido and Kano were sitting next to her, both in shock, neither knowing what to do. 

None of them heard the cell door open, nor the sound of a person walking in. What they did hear, was laughter that seemed to echo throughout the whole lab. Marry didn’t move, but Kano and Kido turned around, with no effort to fight back. 

Dark Konoha, as Seto put it, was covered in blood, and had a large - almost snake-like - grin on their face. 

“Too bad. I was planning on saving him for last, but it’s so much better this way, wouldn’t you think, my Queen?” even though Dark Konoha never said who their Queen was, Kido and Kano felt it in their hearts that they were addressing Marry. She didn’t even look up. 

Dark Konoha sighed, “Usually she’s more responsive than this. Well, I’m bored, so let’s just cut to the chase,” they pulled out a gun and aimed it at Kano, “One, two, buckle my shoe,” they sang, putting two bullets into Kano’s skull, “three, four, shut the door,” two bullets went into Kido’s skull and she slumped down next to Kano, both leaning against Seto’s body.

Marry was covered in blood, and shaking, her hair up to her shoulders. But, she didn’t look up from Seto’s chest.

“C’mon, My Queen. Pull your head out of that dead boy’s chest and use your power. Let’s get rid of this disgusting timeline, shall we?”


	3. Bargaining

Marry was bleeding. At least, she thought she was. It was hard to tell which blood was hers anymore. She had tripped while they were running away from  _ it _ , and her knee was cut by a scrap piece of metal or something as she tripped over it. Momo had tried to bandage it but there was no time. 

In just the short seconds it took for Marry to stand up, it had already caught up to them, and in a few more very short seconds, Marry’s blue dress was stained red from the blood from Momo’s head, crushed between the snake’s palms. 

It was just her, Hibiya, a young boy she had only met less than 24 hours prior, and Shintaro, still clutching his broken phone, Ene destroyed. His hand was bleeding. 

“You can put an end to this, my Queen,” it hissed, tossing the now limp body of Kido aside, making a dull thump when she hit the floor, “Let’s do this once more.”

“Please, leave us alone, I’m begging you!” Marry cried, “let us go!”

It only laughed, an awful sound that echoed in her ears. Her hands - one clasped in Shintaro’s, the other in Hibiya’s - tightened their grip on the last remaining members of the Dan, holding on for dear life.

“Let - Let Konoha go!” Hibiya stuttered, his brown eyes full of wisdom and fear beyond his years, “They don’t deserve to be a prisoner in their own body.”

Suddenly, the snake was right in Hibiya’s face, whispering in his ear, “Konoha is already dead. When I possessed them I crushed their entire soul, like one would crush a grape. Or a head.”

Hibiya leaned into Marry, shaking. Shintaro was silent, and Marry could see him trying to think of a way out of this but there was nothing. The hand that was still holding his broken phone was bleeding, cut by the broken glass. 

Marry had to something. She was running out of time. 

“Please, just let us go,” she said, and it smiled.

“You’re starting to sound like a broken record, my Queen. And you know I can’t let you go, you’re too important.”

“Why are you doing this?” she asked, hoping to stall for time, as if any of them would be able to get out of this alive. 

It sighed, “My Queen, I am tired of this world. It’s all so bland, none of the wishes I am given are able to come true. So, with your help, we can start this all over again, and I can have some more fun. So, my Queen, what is your wish?”

“My wish?” Marry was stumped. She had nothing to wish for now, “I just wish for my friends to be okay again. All of them, all of us, happy together. That’s what I wish.”

“But my Queen, you have two of them right here. They are oh so very quiet. I wonder what the tall one’s thinking. This body seems to care about him quite a lot. I wonder...” they trailed off, taking a step toward Shintaro, who didn’t even move. Instead, Marry stepped in front of the tall boy, pulling Hibiya along to hid behind both Shintaro and Marry. She had to protect what little she had left, even though she never got to know Shintaro well, she knew he was a good person, and they had a lot of nice conversations. And Hibiya, even though she hadn’t known him for long, was good friends with Momo, who Marry trusts with her life. She had to protect them. 

“I want  _ all _ of them back. Kido and Kano and Momo and Ene and Seto and Konoha. All of them.”

“I see. Perfect. But, I can’t do that for you. You have to do that yourself. Meanwhile, I think I’ll take these two young men off your hands, you seem to have no use for them anymore, no matter how much you try to protect them. I’m sure you won’t miss them for long.”

“Take me.”

This stopped the snake in its tracks, “What?” it hissed. Even Shintaro reacted, slowly coming out of the haze that had plagued his mind. 

In all honesty, Marry had no idea what she was doing, or what she was signing up for. But, if it meant at least two of the Dan would be okay, she could live with it. Until she learned how to bring everyone else back.

“Take me with you, you can fulfill my wish and we can reset. Just, please, leave them alone. Or, I won’t do anything and you’ll never get what you want.”

The snake looked intrigued, “That’s never happened before. Very interesting,” there was a small pause, “all right, I’ll take you, and we’ll fulfill your wish, together. Oh, this will be so wonderful my Queen. Let us leave,” it held out a hand, and for a split second Marry thought she saw a snake in the middle of its palm. But she blinked and it was gone. 

“Marry, you can’t, you have no idea what they’ll do to you!” Hibiya exclaimed, tears welling up in his eyes. 

“He’s right. You - You can’t,” Shintaro added, his voice slightly hoarse from screaming. 

“I have to.”

Marry let go of Shintaro’s and Hibiya’s hands and placed one shaky palm into the snake’s open hand. It smiled. 

“Perfect. Now, time to restart this world,” it pulled out a gun and proceeded to shoot both Shintaro and Hibiya in the head before Marry even had a chance to react.

Marry felt as if she was shot in the heart when she saw Shintaro and Hibiya fall. She tried to pull her hand back but the snake had it in a tight grip. She screamed as her heart ached for her friends. She collapsed and the snake kneeled down next to her, still holding her hand.

“You pro-You promised you wouldn’t hurt them,” she whispered, “You promised.”

“My Queen, I had to hurt them so we can fulfill your wish. You can’t reset while there are still snakes inside living, breathing bodies. I’m sure you know that,” Marry didn’t know anything anymore, “now, my Queen, time to fulfill your wish. Use your snake.”

It let go of her hand as her body was wracked with another wave of pain in her heart. The entire world melted away, it was just her and the snakes. She could control them. She could make them do anything she wanted. 

“ W̷̼̉̅h̷̰̿̚a̵̯̫̐̚t̷͚͎̐̕ ̴̹͑͝d̸̺̏o̶͚̪̚ ̵̝̮͆͑y̵̦̏o̵͚̐̈́ǘ̶͜͝ ̴̩̅͒ͅw̵̩̅͒a̶̘n̶̞͂ẗ̴̮,̵͈̃͘ ̶͍̍m̴̫͋̚y̷̡̜̿̇ ̷̢̾̅Q̷̬͖̋ů̷͘ͅē̸̲̯̚e̵̬̊n̸̞̼̿,̵̫̖́ ” all of the snakes hissed in her ears, in her hair, in her pockets, everywhere.

“I just want to be with my friends again. I want happy ending,” she cried, her tears floating upward. She wasn’t bleeding anymore, the cut in her knee was completely healed, as if she hadn’t even fallen in the first place. 

“ Y̵̦̎ͅō̶͖̘̈́ụ̸r̶̛̰̽ ̶̟̯̄͠w̸̠̅i̴̱̞̅̆s̷̨̩͌h̴̲̓̕ ̴̰̂̿i̷̥̾̄s̶̱̹͌͝ ̸̭̞͋́o̸͍͌u̸̘r̴̘̗͘ ̷̻͓̌̄c̵̪͉̏o̸̹̊͊m̴̟̩͠m̶̢̺̏a̵̳͛̔n̵̝̏d̴̖̈́,̷͙̟͌ ̸͎͋̈ͅm̵̜̪̋̆ẏ̷̭̏ ̶̜̜͛Q̸̻̉̃ͅų̸̞͝e̶͕̣͒̈́ẹ̸͒n̷̲̅͛,̵͖͉͑͌ ” the snakes hissed once more as she felt time going back and back and back. Back before this awful event, back before everyone died, back before Marry had met any of the Dan. Back and back and back. Her perfect happy ending. 

_ August 14th 20XX, 12:38pm _


	4. Depression

_ It was strangely quiet today,  _ Shintaro dimly noted,  _ usually it’s yelling at me by now.  _

“It” was referring to Ene, the computer virus that had appeared in his computer a year ago and had been annoying every since. Any time Shintaro was conscious she would yell and scream at him until his ears almost bled. 

But today, it was silent. He looked over to it and saw it was sitting at the corner of his computer monitor, swiping through a photo album of people he finally recognized. He squinted to get a better look of the people in the photos, but it was too small a pixelated for him to see. Ene didn’t even turn around. It didn’t know he was awake, and had been awake for an hour or two, just laying in his bed, not feeling any effort to move. 

“Ene,” he said, watching it jump up in surprise, a literal exclamation point appearing above its head.

“M-Master! I didn’t know you were awake!” it exclaimed in that high pitched voice of its, hurriedly closing the photos.

“What were you looking at?” he asked and it squeaked, turning red.

“Nothing! I wasn’t looking at anything!” it looked sad again, not staring at him anymore, “it’s been two years,” it said quietly, and Shintaro didn’t have to ask what it was talking about. He was the one that made the countdown to the two year anniversary to Ayano’s death anyway. August 15th 20XX. Two years ago. It still hurts.

“I know,” he simply said. Last year, he would’ve cried, and he did, multiple times. Now, he didn’t feel like he  _ could _ cry. He didn’t feel much of anything anymore. 

“I’m so very sorry Master. I could book you-” he cut of it’s rambling, standing up. 

“No. I don’t need anything.”

“Okay,” it knew by now to not say anything when he told it to. He almost broke his computer when it wouldn’t stop yapping, its endless chattering becoming more than unbearable.

_ I should probably do something today, _ he thought to himself, i _ t’s what Ayano would’ve wanted. _

He stood up, ignoring the look of shock on Ene’s face, and opened up his closet. He pulled on some jeans and a dark blue shirt. Now he just had to pick out a jacket. He only had two, yet it was still a hard choice. 

There was his red one, given to him by Momo a year or so ago. It looked like the scarf Ayano wore to school. The other was jet black, with no words, no anything. His picked it up from a thrift store one day when he was looking for second-hand computer equipment. 

Before his brain had even made the decision, his body made it for him, shrugging on the black jacket and returning back to his bed. There was no reason for him to go anywhere, so why even bother leaving his room? Momo would put some food out for him anyway, if she remembered. 

“Master, are you okay?” it asked, it’s voice almost resembling a wail. Shintaro didn’t answer, just curled in on himself more, “because, I know today is a very rough day, and you haven’t been doing well lately. I think it would be best for your mental health if you talked it out with someone,” it continued, annoyingly. Shintaro grabbed a pillow and pushed it on his ears, trying to block out its grating voice.

It was still talking, “Master, are you listening to me? I think you should try to do something today. Maybe go to the mall? Master, are you alright? Master-” he cut off its rambling by sitting up and looking it directly in the eye.

He was so tired of its voice, so tired of the way it would speak, how it would try to make jokes or act sad, give him a look of pity he knows all too well. Shintaro stood up and walked towards it, reaching his arms out. 

_ If it was real, I would be grabbing it’s neck right now,  _ he thought, when suddenly, he felt something solid in his hands. He looked up and saw that it’s neck was perfectly in between his palms, it’s “innocent” face staring up at him with that same pitied look in it’s bright blue eyes. 

He pushed his hands together and it disappeared, exploded into a cloud of cybernetic dust, fizzling away. But he still felt it stained on his hands invisible. What had he done?

Shintaro collapsed, covering his face with his hands. He felt so utterly empty that Ene’s death didn’t faze him that much, just the fact that he could somehow kill a electronic hologram thing destroyed whatever logical thought was left in his brain.

His right hand was hurting. He touched it and felt something sharp in between his knuckles. Maybe Ene was a real thing after all. He pulled it out, and realized it was bloody glass. His hand was completely scratched up and bloody, and full of glass from...something. He looked around and saw that his computer had a fist-sized hole in it. 

“Oh,” he said out loud, more in shock than anything, “So that’s how I killed Ene.”

He didn’t know what to do now. It felt as though he was stuck in honey. He was so tired. 

Not even bothering to clean off his hand, Shintaro climbed into bed and took a nap, staining his pillow a red that matched his jacket. It was such a pretty color. 


	5. Acceptance

Ayano had only been dead a week. She knew, in the living world, that wasn’t true. But here, in the “Daze” as her dad called it in his notes, time passed differently, if it even passed at all. The clock that was aimlessly ticking could just be for decoration, and not to actually count time. But, Ayano didn’t have time to think about clocks and time and the little stuff like that. She was too busy thinking about everything else. 

She paced around her classroom, admiring the flowers on the ceiling as she thought. For the first day or so (according to the clock) she was stuck on that very ceiling, stuck in an endless fall, thinking about her life and what she left behind.  _ Who _ she left behind. 

Shintaro. She never even realized she really loved him until she jumped, thinking it was just a silly infatuation. But the feeling in her chest, the tears that fell from her face, those weren’t from an infatuation. She had really loved him, loved every part of him from his pointy nose to his always-messy black hair and the unimpressed look on his face. She loved him, and she never told him. And now she never could. 

At first, she didn’t believe that she was truly stuck in the daze. I mean, it looked so strange, maybe she was just in a coma? But, she knew that wasn’t true, and even though she didn’t think she had a mean bone in her body, she was angry. Not angry, just upset. She knew that she had to stay in the daze, but maybe it would somehow let her be in contact with the normal world? She tried making a wish to see Shintaro again, to talk to him just one last time, and a television appeared, play a live feed of Shintaro’s every movement. Watching him go about his day without her made her even more melecholic as she watched him grow up without her, never knowing how much she loved him. She also watches her family. She saw Kousuke bring his friend to their hideout permanently, and she wished she could’ve been there to get to know her. She saw Tsubomi and Shuuya fight, and she saw both of them work together as leaders, as much as both of them denied it. She saw her family without her and they were happy, and she was stuck here with no way of talking to them or saving them from what’s to come. She was so sad. She was so helpless. She laid there for a long time, just watching the world pass by. It took her a long time before she got up. 

It was the same day Shintaro received Ene. The minute Ayano saw her, she knew that was Takane. Something just told her it was, and when she saw how hard Takane was trying to cheer Shintaro up something changed in Ayano. She knew she had to do something. 

It was at that moment she started falling. 

She hit the floor of her classroom in a daze, and really looked around her. It was the first time she had noticed she was on the ceiling, the small television still up there. But now there was a large television that was completely dark, save for a red dot in the center. Even without any words being spoken Ayano knew what to do. She knew she couldn’t keep acting like this, moping and crying and wishing for things that can never be and just watching life go by. She had to do what she came to the daze to do. Learn about the world, and save her family. Save Shintaro. 

She gritted her teeth, walked over to the tv, opened her eyes wide, the red reflecting in the glass of the television, and she touched the red dot. 

Then she saw everything. 


End file.
